Post Tagged with: "CRIA"

Downloading and Demonoid

Yesterday's jury verdict in Minnesota is unsurprisingly generating an enormous amount of attention – a $220,000 damage award for sharing 24 songs will do that. While Declan McCullagh and Ray Beckerman provide some good analysis about why and what next, it is worth noting that the Canadian context is very […]

October 5, 2007 — 19 comments — News

CRIA To Promote Copyright “Education” Plan

CNET is reporting that Canada is in for another attempt to "educate" children about copyright. Despite the fact that both Captain Copyright and Fair-Share were recently shelved, CRIA is apparently anxious to work with provincial governments to develop copyright curriculum. Moreover, CRIA's Graham Henderson plans to target parents with messages […]

October 2, 2007 — 10 comments — News

Copyright and the Throne Speech

While Canadian Heritage Copyright Policy may be undergoing some uncertainty, that is not stopping some copyright lobby groups from pushing the government to include copyright in next month's throne speech. In one of the oddest releases in memory [can't seem to find it online yet], four industry groups – CRIA, Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA), Canadian Music Publishers Association (CMPA), and Music Managers Forum (MMF) Canada, have called on the government to feature copyright, including WIPO ratification, in the forthcoming legislative agenda.

The strangest part of the release is the vision put forward by these four groups. There are no musicians, performers, songwriters, or copyright collectives to be found (the absence of consumers is a given). Of course, the release fails to mention that Canadian musicians stand against WIPO ratification, while CRIA is in the middle of litigation in which it opposes the collectives and is trying to reduce the amount of compensation they receive. In other words, it is an industry view of a music industry without musicians.

September 25, 2007 — 2 comments — News

Fearing Legalized P2P Downloading, CRIA Declares War on Private Copying Levy

The Canadian Recording Industry Association this week quietly filed documents in the Federal Court of Appeal that will likely shock many in the industry. CRIA, which spent more than 15 years lobbying for the creation of the private copying levy, is now fighting to eliminate the application of the levy on the Apple iPod since it believes that the Copyright Board of Canada's recent decision to allow a proposed tariff on iPods to proceed "broadens the scope of the private copying exception to avoid making illegal file sharers liable for infringement."

Given that CRIA's members collect millions from the private copying levy, the decision to oppose its expansion may come as a surprise. Yet the move reflects a reality that CRIA has previously been loath to acknowledge – the Copyright Board has developed jurisprudence that provides a strong argument that downloading music on peer-to-peer networks is lawful in Canada. Indeed, CRIA President Graham Henderson provides a roadmap for the argument in his affidavit:

"First, the Board has stated, in obiter dicta, on several occasions that the Private Copying regime legalizes copying for the private use of the person making the copy, regardless of whether the source is non-infringing or not. Therefore, according to the Board, downloading an infringing track from the Internet is not infringing, as long as the downloaded copy is made onto an 'audio recording medium'…

Second, also in obiter dicta, the Board stated that the private copying exception in Section 80 is not conditioned on the existence of a tariff to collect royalties covering the medium onto which copies are made.

Third, in combination with the aforementioned obiter dicta in the Board's other decisions, the Decision [the iPod decision] could potentially be interpreted to allow the copying of music files from any source – whether legitimate or illegitimate – onto any type of device ordinarily used by individuals to copy music, such as personal computers…"

While Henderson and CRIA make it clear that they disagree with this interpretation, they are obviously sufficiently concerned that it reflects Canadian law that they have burned their remaining bridges with Canadian music in order to try to persuade the Federal Court of Appeal to allow them to intervene in iPod hearings.

September 15, 2007 — 29 comments — News

LeBlanc on HMV and CRIA Stats

Larry LeBlanc, the longtime Canadian music reporter, recently left Billboard Magazine and has begun to publish a regular email newsletter on Canadian music developments. LeBlanc's latest edition includes some pointed comments on the coverage of HMV's retail price reductions and CRIA's attempts to link them to P2P downloading. LeBlanc has kindly granted me permission to repost his comments on this issue, which he titles HMV's Price Cuts and Why CRIA's Stats Don't Add Up:

September 12, 2007 — 3 comments — News